


I Still Remember How It All Changed

by writesstuff



Series: Natural Occurrence or Fate [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-18
Updated: 2012-12-18
Packaged: 2017-11-21 10:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/596845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writesstuff/pseuds/writesstuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek would never admit that the reason he and Stiles got together was an old crazy person, and a Kanima, when Stiles was almost 16, but that’s what it was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Still Remember How It All Changed

**Author's Note:**

> I would just like to mention that I feel horrible about not remembering Jackson or Lydia when Stiles mentioned the betas/pack but srsly if Lydia was really very important other than being immune/smart (and bringing Peter back to life, but we’re not counting that bec helloooo he’s not going to die or become mad in this AU), then why mention her to the living Hales? Laura could notice her, I guess, bec Jydia love-of-the-century shtuff
> 
> I kept the order of bitten characters, other than Scott, the same tho? IDK
> 
> And the title is from Don't You Worry Child (Swedish House Mafia)

Derek would never admit that the reason he and Stiles got together was an old crazy person, and a Kanima, when Stiles was almost 16, but that’s what it was. He had gone to find Stiles within the first month of Future!Stiles leaving (what can he say, having his mate, who knew of being his mate, leave for another time and would never return, bummed him out), but Stiles was a _child_. He was a child, and Derek wasn’t going to approach him while he was 8 years old.

So he began to watch over the kid. He chased the bigger, older bullies away, and always sent Stiles small trinkets whenever he’d be upset, and especially when his mother got sick, just to cheer the younger boy up. After he graduated from high school, Derek went to the community college and started driving by Stiles’ house at least once a week to make sure everything was okay, as the Sheriff would often work late.  

Any threats coming to Beacon Hills would be able to smell Derek’s scent all over the surrounding area of Stiles’ house, warning them _away_.

 

**-0-0-0-**

 

Derek smelled it before he even reached the house.

His weekly patrol of the neighbourhood turned into a nightly affair, three weeks before, when his pack had felt and smelled a disturbance in their territory. It wasn’t a rogue werewolf, and it was killing people. (One person was Isaac Lahey’s father. After the creature killed him, Derek’s mom and Laura found Isaac and offered him a place in their pack. He accepted.) They hadn’t been able to scent it out, or catch it in the act, yet, however. He jumped out of his mom’s car as soon as he was parked.

The patrols were mostly in place because Derek had promised— _promised_ to find Stiles. He did find Stiles, but the kid was 8, like the older Stiles had said. So he waited. 7 years was a long time to wait. Especially without contact, and having to watch over him from afar; the distance made him irritable and have an itch under his skin, especially around the full moon.

He stood in front of the dark house and smelled the creature, but only heard one heartbeat. It was beating erratically, and he closed his eyes to listen to Stiles moving around in the dark. “Dad?” his voice was broken and worried. Moving into the house, he was there, by Stiles’ side within seconds. Stiles had let out a loud scream as he appeared. Derek didn’t give him a chance before he was being taken out of the house.

“No, who are you— _tell me what’s_ —YOUR HAND DOESN’T GO THERE!” Stiles smacked ineffectively at Derek’s hand, where it was holding firmly to his thigh in an attempt to fireman carry him. “What are you _doing_?” Stiles screeched as he was dropped onto the grass. He scrambled to his feet to stare up at his house. The lights were off, as well the door kicked in. “My dad is going to _kill_ you!” he said in abject horror.

Derek turned to him, eyes flashing blue. “Shut up.”

Stiles swallowed, “Who are you?” he asked, waving his arms about.

“Not important.”

“Uh, yeah, _it_ _is_!” Stiles poked his finger into Derek’s face. “You just took me out of my house, and my dad’s gone and he’s not answering his phone and he was off work at 6—it’s 9!” he said while his breathing sped up.

Derek recognized the beginning stages of one of Stiles’ panic attacks. “Calm down.” He glared up at the house before moving forward. “Stay here, I’ll try to…check for clues.” He cringed at the wording, because he wasn’t a detective, damnit. He had already showed a part of his wolf to Stiles without incident. The instinct to keep the secret was too strong for him to fully wolf out with Stiles right outside. After moving through Stiles’ house, he walked back out to find Stiles frantically screaming into his cellphone at his friend Scott.

Derek took the phone and said, “Stiles is fine,” before hanging up.

“Dude!” Stiles took the phone back with a scowl.

“You weren’t always this difficult,” Derek said with a sigh.

“Excuse you?” Stiles said incredulously.

“Come on—you’ll be safe with my family.” He took Stiles’ hand and dragged him back to the car. He didn’t give Stiles a chance to argue, and took off down the road. Stiles gripped at the dash, telling him to slow down. They reached the Hale house in record time.

Sheila and Laura were waiting, looking worried and alert. Laura’s eyebrows shot up at Derek as Stiles fell out of the car. “What’s he doing here?” she asked as Derek approached.

“It’s got his dad,” Derek grumbled, looking between the two women. He glanced behind him, at Stiles. Stiles continued to stare at them with a shrewd look on his face. “The scent was fairly fresh but I don’t know what the creature is exactly…I did catch the scent of a human, however,” he said in a flat tone.

Sheila looked at Laura, who was nodding to herself. “Dad and Peter—go sniff the human out. Do not engage with whatever is with the human.” She waited until they exited the house and left without a word. “Derek, you take Stiles and keep him in the house.”

“I-.”

“No, you have to protect him,” she said with a firm head shake.

His jaw clenched but he nodded and walked back up to Stiles. “We’re going to get your dad back,” he said and jerked his head to the house, “For now, you’ll stay here with us.”

Stiles looked between the three before shaking his head. “I have to go find my dad,” he said and stepped back.

“You won’t be able to track him!” Derek snapped. “Leave that to us. We’ll get him back. Now go inside!”

Sheila stepped forward, placing a hand on Derek’s arm. “Honey, go inside.” Her tone didn’t warrant any arguing, so Derek turned on his heel and stomped into the house. She turned to Stiles and gave him a kind smile. “We are sending people to find your father, and any others who are responsible for him going missing.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “At the moment, you’ll only hinder our search. It would benefit all of us if you waited inside, okay?”

Stiles nodded begrudgingly.

-0-0-

Stiles attempted to escape the Hale house 5 times before Peter and Craig returned. They were dirty and a little worse for wear. “It’s a Kanima,” Craig breathed.

“And it’s Gerard Argent that’s controlling it,” Peter said with a scowl.

The remaining Hales in the room all looked at one another uneasily.

“Where’s my dad?” Stiles asked as he exited the kitchen and stood at the doorway into the sitting room. “Did you find him?” he asked urgently.

“Yes, we found him, but his capturers are a bit more…armed…than we are,” Peter said with a grimace. Stiles opened his mouth and then snapped it shut.

“What do you need to know? I know how to research, and I know people?” he bit that out, stepping into the room a bit more. “I can help.”

The werewolves in the room looked to one another. “What can you tell us about a Kanima?” Peter asked. Sheila smacked his arm with a glare.

Stiles blinked. “Um…nothing?” he looked around at them. “Get me to a computer and I can look it up.”

Sheila shook her head. “Its okay, Stiles.” She stood and they all migrated out of the room, save Derek.

He stood off to the side before stepping towards Stiles. “We’ll get him back, but this is a bit harder than we thought,” he said with an apologetic look. “You can use my computer, if you want,” he offered.

Stiles nodded numbly as Derek led him up the stairs.

It wasn’t until an hour later of Stiles searching Kanima on Google that he broke the silence of Derek lying on the bed behind him and the occasional clack of keys. “How did you know to be at my house so quickly?” he turned in the chair to stare at Derek, “I was only home for a few minutes and then you were there…?” he trailed off, waiting for an answer.

Derek stopped his habitual ‘throwing the tennis ball in the air and catching it’ to stare at Stiles. He shrugged. “Coincidence.”

“And every other time I’ve seen you wandering our neighbourhood around the same time?” Stiles asked. His eyebrows rose in question.

Derek turned to stare at the ceiling and returned to throwing the tennis ball. “I have a strict walking schedule.” He didn’t bother to look at Stiles.

“And you knew I was in trouble, how?” Stiles rolled closer to the bed. “I wasn’t screaming or anything, so how exactly did you know I was freaking out?” he poked Derek’s side. “And why were your eyes blue but now they’re this greeny-grey colour?” he continued poking Derek. “ _And_ I can see how you’re all Mr. Buff McLeatherJacket, but how the hell’d you carry me out of the house so quickly?” He sucked in a breath, “And finally, how do you guys know who took my dad, or how to find them, when I couldn’t find anything out of place except for a missing father? I’m the Sheriff’s son for crying out loud, I’m not supposed to miss details!”

“It was dark, you could have missed some,” Derek pointed out, still not looking at Stiles.

Stiles reached out to snatch the ball midair but missed and knocked it off into the darker shadows of Derek’s room. They stared at the direction it went in before Derek turned to glare at him.

The door creaked open and Sheila poked her head in. “I think it’s time you tell him, Derek—you know how he can get if he’s left out of the loop,” she said and gave Stiles a smile.

“How do you even know who I am!?” Stiles asked incredulously. “I’ve seen you around town and stuff but we’ve never even spoken!” he waved his arms about.

“It’ll make sense after Derek tells you,” Sheila said calmly.

“I’m holding you to that, Mrs. Hale,” Stiles said with a small glare. He looked at Derek expectantly when the door closed with a snap.

Derek shifted his features. Stiles’ heartbeat skyrocketed as he stared in dumbfounded shock. His scent didn’t change from the thrum of fear over his father’s disappearance, so Derek called that a win. When Derek’s features returned to normal, he held up his hands to encompass whatever he thought it would, and said, “Werewolves.”

Stiles snapped his jaw with a click and then let out a shocked laugh, “Werewolves?” he didn’t sound convinced, despite just witnessing Derek’s transformation.

Derek nodded solemnly.

It was a few more minutes of stunned silence on Stiles’ part before he was on the bed and poking and prodding Derek’s face. “How? Who? How do you know me—‘werewolves’ doesn’t answer that,” he pointed out.

Derek smacked Stiles’ hands away lazily, not really trying to stop him. “Most of my family members are werewolves. Some are human. We were born this way, but some can be bitten—an alpha has to do the biting, though.” He licked his lips and made a face. “The how we know you is going to sound crazy,” he admitted.

Stiles stared at him. “Crazier than werewolves?” he looked rightfully dubious.

“Um, yes,” Derek sat up and Stiles sat back, crossing his legs and looking expectant. “The future you—almost two years into our future—was transported back in time, to when I was 16.”

“And that was…?”

“7 years ago.”

“Oh,” Stiles scratched at his cheek, “So I was 8?”

“Yeah,” Derek nodded. “He…stopped my pack from being murdered…” he was still sore about the subject. “And he told me to find you because…” he rubbed at his face. “We can cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“No, you’re going to tell me right now, because if it’s something _weird_ , like I’m some baby mama to some supernatural weirdo, then I want to know now.”

“How—how did you get baby mama problems from anything I’ve said?” Derek asked in exasperation.

“Well, Kanima, time travel, and _werewolves_ aren’t supposed to be real!” Stiles replied loudly, “How can I be sure I’m not gonna be carrying one of your guys’ babies?” he asked with a glare.

Derek sighed as he looked to his ceiling. “I can assure you, you are not going to be pregnant with anyone’s offspring in the future.” Derek could hear his family trying not to laugh downstairs. He felt his annoyance bubble up.

“Well why’d you have to find me then?” Stiles glared. “If I did my job and stopped your pack from dying, then why would you still have to find me?” he waved his arms around, “And how did I even time travel?!”

“You’re magic.”

“I’m—I’m what?”

Derek sighed, “I’m not going to say ‘yer a wizard, Stiles’.” Stiles had almost grinned at that before shaking his head to clear it. “Your older self told me to find _you_ , because since you stopped the fire, nothing would have happened the same. Your friend Scott wouldn’t be bit, therefore you wouldn’t ever find out about werewolves.”

“And that’s a bad thing?!” Stiles let out a long breath through his nose. “From the way I see it, it’s because you guys know me that my dad got taken!”

Derek cringed.

The door opened again and Laura walked in, sitting on the chair Stiles vacated. “Listen, kid,” she said, leaning forward. Stiles stared at her warily. “You are Derek’s mate, as in his one and only. You. Not some girl or guy out there, but you. Either way, you would’ve been sucked into this world; because we would have made him approach you if he didn’t suck it up and do it himself-.”

“Gee, thanks.” Stiles and Derek chorused dryly.

She continued on, as if neither interrupted her, “So get your hissy fit over with now and get used to the fact that you and Derek will fall in love with each other in the future,” she pushed herself to her feet. “And maybe think if you want Scott to be a werewolf, still, because I’ve been watching him and he’s a sweetheart. It’d be a shame if his asthma prevented him from reaching his true potential.” She left the room.

Stiles watched after her, looking speechless. Derek glanced at him before falling back onto his bed. “There’s the reason I said to leave the reason until it was important.”

Stiles didn’t move for another 20 minutes. When he did, he needled everything out of Derek about what happened with his future self.

**-0-0-0-**

 

Alan Deaton had taken Stiles aside when the Hales had gone to him for advice, and started presenting him with things. A bag of mountain ash, a leather bound book, and a few parting words of wisdom. He smiled as he went on about sparks, and being vague in general. Stiles took it all in with the occasional interruption to question what a specific excerpt meant, or to question Deaton on his life choices.

Scott came up in conversation and Stiles mentioned how he loved animals. He’ll later take all the credit in getting Scott a job with the vet.

By the time they trapped the Kanima, and captured Argent, John was worn and pale and needed to be hospitalized for malnutrition.

“Wow,” Stiles said after they were all huddled in the waiting room. He was compartmentalizing how his dad looked in the hospital bed, and tried for humorous, to stave off the panic attack. “We can’t catch a break from the Argents, can we?” Derek let out a choked laugh.

-0-

The Kanima, who turned out to be Jackson Whittemore (“Not shocking there, I’d have pegged him as emotionally stunted enough for a werewolf bite not to take,” Stiles muttered when he seen who was trapped in the ring of mountain ash he had set down for the Hales), admitted to being bitten by something in the woods and having blackout moments when he’d wake up with blood on hands.

Stiles absolutely did _not_ get a secret enjoyment out of seeing Jackson blubber like a baby in the face of an interrogating Laura, with her flashing red eyes and enlarged canines.

They had all had a meeting in the Hales’ kitchen (Sheriff included, because who could lie about the giant lizard that kept him captive for almost two whole weeks?), discussing who could be the alpha that attempted to turn Jackson. Jackson was bonded to Laura for the time being, until they figured out how he could finish the transformation to werewolf.

Turns out it was Lydia. Lydia was the key, with her house key, and her ‘I love you’ that got Jackson to get over his abandonment issues enough to finish the transition.

 

**-0-0-0-**

 

There was another alpha attack before they caught the unknown alpha, and Sheila commented that one of Stiles’ friends he mentioned was named Erica Reyes.

Erica stared at them all, looking incredibly small and vulnerable after she was caught in the woods, on the night of the full moon. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked quietly. Stiles was too busy staring at Sheila to reassure Erica of anything.

“Who else did he mention?” Laura asked, watching Erica in interest.

“Vernon Boyd and his friend Scott.”

“Boyd’s my friend in the future?” Stiles asked, looking surprised.

“If we change him, yes,” Sheila looked to Laura with raised eyebrows. “You mentioned Erica, Isaac, Boyd, and Scott,” she said and looked towards him with a questioning look. “Anything you’d like to say about Jackson?” she asked.

“We’re not friends…at all…” Stiles said with a frown.

“It _seems_ like a pattern is happening, nonetheless,” she said decidedly. “What’s it you say, John?” she asked, looking to the Sheriff quizzically. “One’s an accident, two’s a coincidence, three’s a pattern and what’s four?”

John nodded his head yes.

“Right, well, Isaac was changed because he wanted the bite as well as needing a guardian, and Erica was attacked by the rogue alpha that bit Jackson before her. That’s 2 out of 4 names you told me, plus Jackson.”

Stiles shrugged.

 

**-0-0-0-**

 

It took a near dilapidating asthma attack for Stiles to start broaching the subject to Scott. Scott lay on his couch in recovery mode, surfing channels, when Stiles walked in. He fell onto the couch and took the remote from Scott, switching it to MTV for a bit of background noise. “So, werewolves.”

Scott gave him a confused look, “Werewolves?” he questioned. Stiles nodded his confirmation and continued nodding until Scott added, “And…?”

“Oh, right, I had a point to that,” Stiles frowned somewhat to himself. “It took you almost dying on me, to realize I needed to do this-.”

“Please don’t tell me you love me as more than a brother, because I love you, but not in that way. And even if I am…er…were?...interested in guys, you’re like my brother and that’s weird, so please-.”

“Check your ego at the door, my good sir!” Stiles said loudly, flushing as he added, “I am spoken for.”

“Lydia’s not in-.”

“Not Lydia, _but we’re not talking about my love life_!” Stiles smacked Scott’s leg with a half-hearted glare. “Werewolves.”

“We did this already,” Scott said as he tried snatching the remote back.

“Yes, thank you, I know that,” Stiles held the remote out of Scott’s reach. “They’re real.” Scott stopped his epic reach of epic proportions to stare at Stiles dumbly. Stiles nodded. “That was my reaction, too.” 

Scott sat back and regarded Stiles with a frown. “What?”

Stiles rolled his eyes but smiled. “Yeah, werewolves. The Hales. Your asthma will be cured. You’ll be awesomer. The possessive creeper that’s standing right outside your house, waiting for me, is one and claims to be my mate—that’s like a Soulmate.”

Scott turned and craned his neck around to stare out the window, where they could clearly see Derek leaning again Laura’s Camaro. “That’s the creeper…?”

“His names Derek. He is awesome shirtless.” He watched Derek, only to see him look away from the house. He smirked to himself.

“ _You’ve seen him shirtless_?! Have you guys…?!” Scott yelled, hands smooshing together.

“ _That’s_ what you focus on?” Stiles’ eyebrows shoot up as he waves his arms around.

“Well, are you?” Scott looked around the room, at the window again, and then back at Stiles.

Stiles made a face and shook his head. “He’s very pro-virtue when it comes to me, until I’m older.” He shrugged. “Plus I think he’s scared of my dad,” he grinned.

Scott covered his eyes. “It’s like that time you told me gators lay eggs.”

Stiles snorted to himself. “Come on, it’s not that hard to believe that I’ve got a life-partner-person, is it?”

“Not that,” Scott waved Stiles off. “More the fact that you’ve got a mate? _And_ there are werewolves? _And_ you want _me_ to _become_ one?” He pulled at his hair slightly. “What am I supposed to focus on first?” he demanded playfully.

Stiles nodded his head in understanding, grin in place. “Yeah, I figured I’d distract you with werewolves to drop the ‘me-being-practically-married-to-Derek-even-though-I’ve-only-known-him-for-a-couple-of-months’ thing.”

“ _Stiles_.”

“Hey, my dad knows and he’s totally cool with it!”

“ _What?!_ ”

“Yeah, okay, _story time!_ So Jackson was this Kanima-lizard-thing that kidnapped my dad because of some old Argent dude needing him as leverage to try to kill the Hale pack. Then we caught Jackson, and he stayed a Kanima until Lydia was all ‘hey we are meant to be together 5-eva’ a bit later. But we—the Hale pack and I—saved my dad from being captive. That’s totally why he was in the hospital, by the way. And totally why he’s okay with it, because he knows the Hales somewhat, and now they’re all parent-best-friends-forever and he knows about werewolves and they explained about mates and how we can’t really _choose_ them, and how werewolves could go feral or waste away without their mates being around, but since I’m human, it’s my choice and I’m like ‘yeah buddy’, because you seen the Creeper Extraordinaire out there, right?”

Scott covered his eyes. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

Stiles feigned offense. “Of course you get a choice!”

Scott rolled his eyes. “I meant when it comes to you.” He gave Stiles a fond grin. “You want me to become a werewolf so that I don’t have an asthma attack like—well,” he motioned to his couch-ridden self.

Stiles smiled at him. “And it’d get boring without my best friend to go be superheroes.”

He perked up. “We get to be superheroes?”

Stiles cringed. “Not really—we get to stop evil forces, though!” he waved his hands about. “Like, other werewolves that mean harm to humans, and other supernatural creatures trying to start trouble—we totally get to take ‘em down.”

Scott nodded in consideration. “This is…a really big decision.”

“Yeah,” Stiles sighed. “I already asked if you could tell your mom, and they asked dad how trustworthy she was and he gave the OK, so they said if you want to talk about it with her, then you could but dude— _werewolves_.” Scott grinned at him. “Secrecy is key, though, so don’t go and like…blab it to anyone else, okay?” Scott nodded his head seriously at Stiles.

It took less than two days for Scott to turn up at the Hales with Stiles and Melissa. Scott cried after Laura bit him, having psyched himself up for excruciating pain and heavy bleeding. The tears may have been from relief, but they wouldn’t stop. The pack coddled him until he was reduced to the occasional sniffle.

If Derek noticed Isaac holding Scott far longer and more protectively than any of the other wolves, he didn’t say.

**-0-0-0-**

 

Stiles scratched his head as the puppies, as he’s dubbed them—and Lydia—surrounded him at their table in the cafeteria. It still boggled his mind that Lydia and Jackson would even consider hanging out with him at school, but he wasn’t going to complain (about Lydia, at least.) He watched Boyd from behind the math book Scott had out, because Scott was distracted by Isaac’s ‘pretty hair’ and wasn’t using it anyways. “What do you think of Boyd?” he asked quietly. All 5 of them turned in an oddly horrifying synchronized move, to look at Boyd, before turning back to him.

“He seems fine.”

“He’s really quiet.”

“You act like I _care_.”

“Don’t be a dick, Jackson. I think he’s cute.”

“Erica likes _Boy-y-y-y-duhhhhh_!”

Erica smacked Scott over the head, but she was smiling. “Shut it, puppy breath.”

Stiles peered over the top of the book again and squinted at the other boy in question. “What about as a werewolf?” he whispered.

“He looks like a powerhouse,” Jackson said lightly. “Be good on the lacrosse team.”

Scott grinned and nodded in agreement, before realizing what he was doing. “He seems really calm, too—probably be the silent, strong, smart type, you know?”

“What Scott said,” Erica said in camaraderie. Isaac and Lydia shrugged in response. Isaac was too busy being petted, and Lydia really didn’t have an opinion otherwise.

Stiles frowned. “ _Or_ maybe we could just be friends with him—do you think he _needs_ to be a werewolf?” He looked at them all, “He’s not sick, or anything, is he?” he asked.

Isaac, who was the furthest in training, stood and walked by Boyd to take a subtle sniff, and returned. “I think he’s just really quiet,” he said as he fell into his seat again.

“And he’s pretty sarcastic,” Stiles said with a nod. They all looked at him with raised eyebrows. “We may have had transactions in the past—he’s pretty good at getting things done,” he shrugged them off. “So, should we just make him part of _this_ pack,” he motioned to the table at large, “Or should we consider asking Laura to bite him?”

They all sat in silence for the remainder of the lunch period. When the bell rang, Stiles looked at them expectantly. Jackson broke the contemplative silence with, “If we include him, I want to include Danny,” and left.

Lydia rolled her eyes. “Trial run,” she said and stood, “ _This_ pack, before the Hale pack,” and they all nodded their agreement as they left the cafeteria.

-0-0-

“Hey, Boyd!” Stiles said brightly as they surrounded his table and sat. “What’s up?” he added when Boyd stared at them in confusion.

“Nothing; just wondering why you’re sitting with me?” He looked at them all again, “Do you need something?”

Stiles held his chest, looking wounded. “I’m hurt, Boyd, can’t we just sit with you?”

Scott rolled his eyes but smiled at Boyd, “We just wanted to get to know you,” he said when Boyd didn’t drop the expectant look. “And maybe be friends?”

“Oh.”

They sat in awkward silence for all of 5 minutes before Erica broke it and asked Boyd if he ever thought to play Lacrosse. That opened the floodgates for all the boys to start talking. The girls went on to talk about how the boys were annoying with their lacrosse fetish.

-0-

“So, what about Boyd?” Laura asked as Stiles lounged around her room.

Stiles shrugged. “We’re friends now—I’m supposed to go meet up with the rest of ‘em in a bit at the movies,” he said as he flipped through the book Deaton gave him. “I don’t know why future me said he was supposed to be a werewolf—there’s no _need_ for him to be one…” he trailed off and made a face.

She grinned to herself, “Maybe he werewolfs good.” She did a double take from her computer screen, to him, “Wait—what? Aren’t we having a birthday dinner for you?” she gave him a small pout. “I got you a gift and everything,” she added.

Stiles snorted, “We’re going to an early showing—be back in plenty of time for the dinner!” he waved her off as he continued reading the page he was on. He sat up and tapped the page. “Lookit this—what if it’s like with the others, though?” he questioned. She hummed that she was listening instead of looking at his book. “What if the betas in that other timeline are _meant_ to be werewolves, so that’s why different things happened that made them become werewolves nonetheless?”

Laura frowned thoughtfully. “You mean the universe is righting itself with them being turned in different ways?”

“Yeah,” Stiles held the book out to her, but she declined (“It’s your thing, dude.”) “I think this was the spell that had sent me back in the first place,” he tapped it. “It says I shouldn’t try to change anything, because nothing changes unless it’s either not a natural occurrence, or ‘fate’.” He made another face, “You guys being murdered by Kate Argent was not a natural occurrence, nor was it _meant_ to happen,” he said, “If it was actually an electrical accident, or something of that nature, then there’d be nothing I could do to change it, you know?”

Laura nodded.

“So yes, if it happens naturally or is _meant_ to happen—and Derek said something about future me saying he turned them all because of ‘good’ reasons, then that’s fate?” he threw the book beside him. “I don’t know. There are rules. What future me did messed with the time line in a huge way, though.”

“But you don’t regret it, do you?” Laura asked with a sarcastic smile.

Stiles rolled his eyes but grinned back.

A knock on the door, and Derek was standing there with his sweater in hand. Stiles vaulted up from the bed, grabbing his book and grinning at Laura. “Like I said, we gotta meet the others at the movies,” he let Derek hang the hood on his head as they headed out.

Laura followed.

-0-

“You know, I wish you’d found out in a way that didn’t involve being run down by a crazy hunter who assumed you were already a werewolf, while at my birthday movie,” Stiles said when Boyd woke up. “Erica was inconsolable until you started healing.”

“What?” Boyd said distractedly as he flexed his fingers in Erica’s hand. He looked over at the group at his bedside. “Hunter?”

“I’d have gotten you a card,” Stiles said, frowning in a ‘what can I do?’ way and splaying his hands, “But they generally don’t carry ‘Sorry our presence in your life caused a werewolf hunter to try to kill you by running you over because they thought you were a werewolf even though being run over while being a werewolf wouldn’t actually do much harm because you would heal right away’ in stores.” His hands waved around before Derek took one to calm him. Stiles sucked in a breath.

Boyd blinked at them and then down at his hands again, “I’m a werewolf, then?”

“It was the only way to keep you alive,” Scott said with a wince. “He kind of hit you at full speed.” The other betas looked just as pained at the memory. “Um, this is Laura, by the way,” he added, motioning to Laura and stepping out of her way. Isaac took his hand and gave him a smile.

Laura stepped forward and smiled down at Boyd. “I’m your Alpha.”

He blinked, “Hi.”

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't know how to end this /scratches head
> 
> Plus, I can never write starstruck lovers that grew up together blah blah blah...and I don't think Derek's human side (bec his wolf side woulda been all 'meh') would've allowed him to start wooing an 8 year old when he was 16. I know 23 and 15 aren't a great thing either, but it's not like Derek's going to sex Stiles up at that age. I think he'd have a very tentative approach to Stiles as a younger person than him, especially after the Kate debacle. So yes, there's that.


End file.
